ACE behaves as a business rather than a public sector organisation. It inspires the creativity of individuals through innovative, collaborative ways of working, its leadership, commercial management and procurement, funding, delivery and security. This ‘creativity’ is enhanced by appropriate infrastructure, both workspace and technology. ACE is funded by its public sector customers. It accepts paid “commissions” to solve a “problem” for a “customer” organisation and the cost of ACE is shared fairly across the public sector. This is novel in UK government. ACE only succeeds by delivering innovative value to the customer, not by relying on established process.

ACE has developed its own products which magnify its values. For example, a key ACE maxim “make it real” is epitomised by ACE’s Impact Lab: a key engagement mechanism to provide private companies and academic institutions with access to real data and public sector front-line specialists (for example from police investigations).

ACE was founded in 2017 as an experiment by the UK’s Home Office. The initial demand from within the Home Office itself has since broadened significantly across the public sector: from national law enforcement and security agencies, police forces, central government departments, the National Health Service and arms-length bodies (for example in the rail sector). In the UK public sector no comparable entity exists. Simultaneously it behaves as a business, a cross-sector integrator, a convener, a disrupter and a delivery mechanism, compliant with regulations. Self-challenge and continuous improvement are a priority in order to release more value from its numerous partner organisations and to deliver the results of practical innovation to more public bodies.

ACE increasingly shares its experience and lessons learnt through Civil Service reform, public leadership programmes and the government commercial function, as well as by virtue of its work with public customers.

The innovation process that conceived ACE was conducted as an element of a challenging multi-year national technology delivery programme led by the UK Home Office. The Home Office needed to demonstrate how it would ensure front-line beneficiaries received the best and most affordable technologies on time, over time. The programme consulted industry organisations, academic institutions and its own government team; it experimented. The result was a hypothesis that a new mechanism was needed: ACE.

Citizens have better public outcomes because of commissions delivered by ACE: lives have been protected and enhanced, clinical health outcomes, law enforcement, victim experience in justice all improved; better public policies developed and taxpayer money saved. Government officials have made better informed decisions. Civil society organisations have a meaningful advocacy voice in solution-finding. Companies’ costs have been lowered and jobs created. Research has been commercialised.

The ACE model is powerful and popular. It has grown organically since 2017. In recent years the demand for commissions has grown 20% per year (and is forecast to maintain). FY 21/22 orders for work are valued in total at > £40M. ACE has empowered public sector officials, private companies (the majority SMEs) and academic institutions to overcome the frustrations of conventional public sector capability development. 250+ commissions have delivered interventions in front-line services in timescales which were previously unimagined. Mission impact is seen in public sector officials adopting entrepreneurial behaviours, collaborative mindsets, and deployment at pace of cutting edge science and technology. Measurable impacts include quantifiable demand, private sector and academic co-investment, analysis from customer surveys, outcome focussed case studies. ACE is expanding its secondment programme to embed innovative cultures and entrepreneurial mindsets across the UK public sector.

The right people are key. At its centre, ACE is a multi-disciplinary team of specialists (c.65-strong) from the public sector and ACE’s private, academic and not-for-profit community, Vivace. They’re selected for expertise, but also, critically, their aptitude for ACE’s collaborative, mission-orientated culture. Commissions may fail if the right aptitude and behaviours are absent. Structured ‘onboarding’ is essential. With each commission ACE requires the customer public sector organisation to nominate a sponsor and front-line user working in the mission problem area. This enables ACE to navigate the controls and needs of the customer organisation and to ensure ACE’s work has real impact in public outcomes. ACE’s pacey, risk-embracing, empowering culture can be alien and uncomfortable for public sector organisations. Comprehensive inductions, explanatory materials and a dedicated customer engagement team help. ACE also connects new customers with those who know ACE well.

First, everyone must sign up to the mission to innovate. Leadership and all corporate functions, eg finance, commercial, IT and legal/compliance, must ‘enable’ not ‘block’ innovation. HR must be a true partner. Those recruiting and training must display and recognise innovative mindsets, attitudes and behaviours, whether the right aptitude, a flexible approach, or the necessity of building multi-disciplinary teams with diverse backgrounds and experience. Learning is best by ‘doing’. Yet acquisition of innovation skills and right aptitudes can be enhanced by explanatory materials and guidance that must clearly, succinctly outline the flexible, iterative ways of working, including regular reviews/assessment of progress. ACE developed a 10-step ‘Way of Working’ at the outset from identifying each mission-oriented problem, engaging its ‘Vivace’ community, filtering ideas through evidenced-based, costed proposals, to commission delivery/implementation (ie ‘make real’) and scaling.

The values and purpose of ACE (mission-led innovation to translate ideas to impact, through collaboration across sectors, organisations and people, with trust and at pace) have been replicated in every one of the 200+ commissions delivered for its public sector customers since 2017. ACE was founded as an experiment to assist the Home Office address the mission problems arising from one national technical delivery programme. Five years later the demand has grown, with more than 50 public sector bodies in the UK having used ACE to drive new science and technology into their public services and outcomes, which has totalled £120M+ of spend on novel solutions.

This is still insignificant within overall UK public spend to develop front-line capabilities. Rather than scale ACE itself, the opportunity and mandate exists to replicate this model, ways of working, culture and enabling arrangements for others to work similarly. ACE has a public sector entrepreneurship pilot to illustrate this.

• ACE has succeeded because it works hand-in-hand with private companies, academics and civil society groups; rewards all; is inherently diverse and open-minded; and always with a mission result in mind. It’s shown that government can choose to work in novel and innovative ways, crossing self-imposed boundaries that are otherwise perceived to constrain procurement, financial, commercial and programme delivery approaches. The critical factor is leadership: a will to inspire others to make it happen. ACE’s model, values and behaviours can be shared widely so others can do this too.
• The unassailable power of partnership, working across sectors, combining the best know-how, products, services and ideas from diverse organisations and people.
• The opportunity to magnify the value and impact. ACE proves the power of partnering. Working with like-minded organisations in other nations would foster greater mutual value and boost global safety, security, health and prosperity.